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Saturday, August 8, 2015

Maupiti’s Stairway to Heaven

No sign. An unimpressive start to one of thebest viewpoints ever! Maupiti, French Polynesia.

“How did you know the stairs led to the lookout point?”
Wayne asked me about my solo day ashore on Maupiti.They led to Maupti’s high point, Mt.
Teurufaatiu, 380 meters high.

I didn’t, was my answer.There was no sign.There was no
specific trail head description in my guidebooks.I simply played a hunch.

The stairs were unassuming, a plain block non-sequetor on a
dirt hillside leading to… a water tank.Glancing up, there was a trail, which was really more of an easy rock
climb much of the way.The rock faces
were short clumps with good toe and hand holds, augmented with support ropes in
spots where they were more of hindrance than a help.

At the top there’s a series of flat rocks, comfortable enough
for a leisurely lunch amidst the near 360 degree view if you don’t mind the
spare local dog or three earnestly inviting themselves to share your lunch.

*A local shopkeeper told us that day the winds and currents
were so blustery even the local fisherman didn’t chance them.

Ridge view from the first part of our Maupiti bushwhacking.

Cruiser Oliver of Inspirity and his visiting friend Renee,
met climbing up, mentioned rather than doubling back down the trail, were
headed over a ridge line trail to the other side of the island.They were good company and the little beach
on the other side of the island looked inviting.I asked if I could join them, and they
agreed.

With so many guidebooks cautioning against non-guide-led
tours, I was intrigued to hike with folks experienced with using GPS programs
to trace a trail.Oliver and Renee said
they’d done well with that before and the guide who was with a group at the
lookout point when we were told Oliver the ridge line trail wasn’t too bad.

We doubled back many times, with Renee checking trail
coordinates on his smart phone and Oliver doing the same on his iPad.We clambered over rocks, wove through trees
and dense often brambly vines and bushes. Descending down humus-rich jungle
hillsides, it was often difficult to see if our steps were on solid ground,
loose rock or crumbling wood.Often the
difference between being on the trail and not being on the trail were
negligible.Simply put, trail or not, it
was at least 85% bushwhacking.

After an hour of descent, all agreed we’d gone far enough it
would be more difficult to turn back than to continue.

Oliver approaches one of the few easily walkable partsof Maupiti's "trail" -- near its end.

After nearly four hours decent, we headed to the little
beach bar Oliver visited before for a well-earned beer and shared bite of
poisson cru coco au lait.My legs were
wobbly.That’s very, very rare.I even got chafing day pack sores – a first
for me on a trail.“This trail is one
you take only once,” Oliver concluded.

We were grateful some locals gave us a ride back, directly
to the dinghy dock.

Late that night, I reached into my pack to check out the
viewpoint photos from my Panasonic 60x digital camera.The camera wasn’t there!Mentally retracing my steps, I recalled last
touching it at our late lunch beach bar stop.

Wayne and I rented some local once-speed beater-bikes for
$10 apiece and rode to the beach bar, “Mimi’s.”The owner promptly returned my camera.Whew! Even though the camera
wasn’t that expensive,I bought the
camera at a reduced rate as a refurb, it would be difficult to replace en
route.Much as I love my Olympus water
camera, its zoom is a mere 3x.We were
incredibly grateful!We celebrated by sharing
a beer Wayne bought, for which he tipped generously.

Waves as viewed from Mt.
Teurufaatiu viewpointthe day after we went through Maupiti's pass.

Before we left Maupiti I returned to the lookout with
Wayne. That time we came right back down the way we came up.While I now have a better idea of how to use
GPS to track an unmarked trail, if I encounter a trail as that hard to follow
as that one was, maybe it’s best left alone.

We are glad we stopped in Maupiti to give French Polynesia a
final fond farewell before our long passage to American Samoa.It’s an unhurried island, with few cars,
locals who wave back with a smile, wayward cameras are returned and residents
feel safe enough to leave their doors and windows open to the fresh ocean
breezes.And, it’s really, really
beautiful.

After our French Polynesian visa expired and we checked out
in Bora Bora, we slipped off to Maupiti(S16.26..838 W152.14.690) to get one last lovely island in and some
R&R before our long passage to American Samoa, with a stop off in Suwarrow
Cooks Island along the way, weather permitting.Maupiti to Suwarrow is about 660 nautical miles (nm).Suwarrow to Pago Pago American Samoa is
about 450 nm.Not counting the time we
rest up in Suwarrow, perhaps up to a week, we anticipate the travel time will
take us a little less than two weeks under passage.There will be no wifi in Suwarrow as its only
inhabitants are a park ranger or two monitoring the reefs there over cruising
season.We are hoping to reconnect to
wifi and call home from American Samoa; our first reasonable opportunity to do
so since Panama in March.